Today, eight of the so-called "Internet Sweepstakes Cafes" have closed or removed the machines. Landlords advertise for new tenants. Workers clean out empty spaces. A terse sign at one site blames Gov. Rick Scott.

At Gig Sweepstakes — the last 14th Street West Internet cafe to remain open — the Chinese immigrant manager waits nervously for the next shoe to drop. She has been warned to close.

"We'll just wait to see what happens," said the woman, who identified herself as Linda Wu.

And so one of the most audacious and lucrative efforts to expand gambling in Florida seems to be quietly fading away — at least for now.

Owners of the unregulated neighborhood mini-casinos had operated with impunity for years in Florida after winning a series of court battles. But lawmakers clarified gray areas in the state's gambling laws and the threat of stiff criminal penalties seems largely to be working.

Law enforcement officials in Manatee County say most of the Internet cafe operations are not fighting a ban that passed the Florida Legislature in April and that was quickly signed into law by Scott.

Sarasota County Sheriff Tom Knight gave cafe operators a 45-day grace period to review the law before his deputies start enforcement on June 1, but some of the county's roughly three dozen Internet cafes already have closed.

Most of the others should shut down with little fanfare if Manatee County's experience is any indicator.

The closings in Manatee have been swift and surprising for longtime cafe patrons. But they were inevitable, said Nova Southeastern University law professor Bob Jarvis.

"It was like filling up a balloon with air," Jarvis said. "Eventually it pops."

Lights out

The rise of "convenience casinos" in Florida was dizzying, and shocking for some.

Within a few years they had spread across the state to more than 1,000 sites employing 14,000 on revenues of roughly $1 billion, according to industry estimates.

Sarasota deli owner Debbie LaStella didn't mind when an Internet Cafe moved in next door. She doesn't have a problem with gambling and the extra foot traffic was nice.

But LaStella knew the phenomenon would not last.

"It was just completely unregulated," she said.

Even states with more liberal gambling laws tend to restrict the practice to a handful of larger operations.

Mini-casinos seemed out of place next to Publix and Dairy Queen.

As in other states, Jarvis said Internet cafes were victims of their own success. The industry was tolerable in small amounts but eventually became too big to ignore.

"They're like cockroaches," he said. "First you see one, then a few, and before you know it the place is overrun."

It turns out the operations are fairly easy to exterminate, though.

Most owners were small-time players looking for a get-rich-quick scheme. They do not have the money to fight in court for months or years.